


Stubbornness

by BSplendens



Series: Miscellaneous TF fics (mostly TFP), AKA where the completed TF bunnies live [3]
Category: Characters from both mentioned, One or the other - Fandom, Transformers:MTMTE, Transformers:Prime, Universe is mostly irrelevant
Genre: Conversation where only one person can talk, Gen, Reluctant therapy patient, Rung and his model ships, Soundwave is a stubborn little spook, Therapy, Tiny empurata mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-08
Updated: 2015-05-08
Packaged: 2018-03-29 13:13:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3897676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BSplendens/pseuds/BSplendens
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Soundwave is on the Autobot ship (for an irrelevant reason) and flipped out a bit when Chromedome got too close to his helm. Now he's been ordered to attend therapy sessions with Rung. <br/>Soundwave Does Not Want. <br/>Rung is used to stubborn patients. He has an idea.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stubbornness

"Soundwave, you're only making this session less than pleasant for the both of us." Rung sighed, looking up at the taller mech. "And you don't have to be so blatantly stubborn towards me." 

Really? He'd been expecting this to go well? Did he often have therapy sessions go well after people were ordered to attend? Wasn't like they were NEEDED sessions, anyway, he was fine.  
Though, to be honest, Soundwave had flipped out a little bit. He did NOT like being sneaked up on by people who could stab needles into the back of his helm and get into his mind. Didn't matter what anyone said, he was quite certain Chromedome had been sneaking up on him on purpose... and so he'd whirled around and slashed one of his arm-blades across the mech's chassis. He hadn't cut too deep, but it had been a reasonably serious wound, enough to say BACK THE FRAG OFF AND DO NOT DO THAT AGAIN to the mech in question. Apparently people now thought he was twitchy and paranoid under that mask, so now he was being ordered to attend therapy sessions. Yay.   
Yeah, no.   
Instead of laying back like he'd been asked to, Soundwave was sitting straight upright on the odd berth-thing Rung used in his office, arms crossed over his chassis. Hmm... that was probably what Rung meant by 'blatantly stubborn'. 

"You normally don't show much emotion with body language, especially not body language you can control. If you're doing that, you're specifically telling me that you're being stubborn. That's not needed... I'm not here to interrogate you." Rung sighed, shaking his helm. Soundwave had just been staring at Rung for quite a while, probably about the past 10 minutes, and they were getting nowhere. Rung had tried asking questions, and he'd tried just talking about random unimportant things. Hadn't gotten any response.   
"Look... I'm not trying to pry things out of you, and I'm not going to make you talk. I'm genuinely trying to help... I know you're functional, and my guess is you think you're doing fine. I'm not exactly disputing that, but you're extremely tense around people, and you haven't relaxed in the time you've been here. You haven't taken off that visor, for one." the psychiatrist pointed out, gesturing slightly towards the visor Soundwave always wore. "This is a safe place... may I at least guess at why you keep that visor on? I have a few theories. You don't have to respond..."   
No response whatsoever. No permission, but no denial.   
"Well... that's not a refusal. I'm going to take that as permission to speculate." Rung decided, tilting his helm slightly and looking up at Soundwave. "I've been wondering about this for a while, really... a lot of people have. Empurata seems to be a fairly popular theory, but I don't think that's the case. For one thing, I've seen you move that visor a bit to drink. For another, empurata victims usually have the nerves in their arms mangled so it's impossible to replace their claws with more useful servos. Given the dexterity you seem to possess, I doubt that.   
Another theory is you have something you don't want people seeing under there. That seems more likely. For one thing, you never speak... presumably, you're mute. So I suppose it's a possibility that you have some sort of wound under there. I don't see any scars running out form under your visor, though...   
There's also theories that you have something like a third optic. Personally, I think you wouldn't cover that... you know the value of fear as a weapon, and extra optics are a reasonably intimidating feature. Fangs would do the same. I don't put any stock in the rumors that you're some sort of bizarre sparkeater hybrid, though you do slightly resemble one. I wouldn't be too surprised if you do have something unusual, given the rest of your frame, but I personally don't think it's anything as drastic as an extra optic. Maybe... slit-pupil optics?" the psychiatrist mused, looking him up and down. "You rather look like you'd have that... it fits. Will you at least tell me if I'm correct about that?" 

Soundwave had been half-listening, internally snickering at some of the things that were apparently rumors. Third optic? Nope. Though, hmm... actually, Rung was correct about the slit pupils. And there was no harm in telling him. Soundwave tilted his helm, then nodded slightly, the first response he'd given to anything Rung had said. 

Good, progress. A little bit of progress. Rung smiled a tiny bit, then stood up, venturing a bit closer to Soundwave. "Thank you." the psychiatrist hummed, then gestured slightly and walked over to a door in the wall. "You obviously don't like this. How about we go somewhere else? I have something in my quarters I think you'd like..." he offered, looking back at the spymaster. "This isn't some kind of trap, Soundwave... I'm just trying to get you to relax a little bit. I'm not going to do anything to you... I just have an idea. We can either sit here and stare at each other for the rest of these sessions, or we can do things that might be more enjoyable. If you relax and decide to talk to me, I should be able to help you with any psychological issues you may have... and I'm quite certain you do have some issues, to be honest. If you don't trust me enough to talk, that's acceptable, I won't make you talk. I'm here to help, not to force you to do things you aren't comfortable with." 

Soundwave glared after him, then reluctantly stood up, following the smaller mech. He was only doing this because he'd been ordered to attend therapy sessions, which meant he'd have to follow Rung. 

Rung walked through the side door, into his quarters, and pulled a box out of a drawer. "As you've probably noticed, I have quite a large collection of model ships. In this box is a half-assembled model, a rather complex one. Would you like to help me work on it? It's your choice, but I think you'd enjoy it..." he offered, setting the box down on a small table. "What do you think?" 

Soundwave crept a bit closer, inspecting the ship, then picked up a small part and inspected it. He allowed himself to look slightly interested, deciding that it might be okay to indicate interest. What exactly was Rung planning here, though? 

"I'll be up-front with you. I'm hoping I can get you to relax around me, and maybe talk to me a bit. The best way to do that is probably to do something we can both enjoy. I'm not going to force you to do this, and I'm not going to force you to talk. If we finish these sessions and you still don't trust me, then I'm going to have to let you leave... I don't force people into therapy, it does no good. I'm not going to ask for an answer now, Soundwave, but... if you're willing, I'd like it if you could talk to me."   
Opening a smaller box inside the large one, Rung showed Soundwave a fully completed engine, then put it back to keep it safe. "There's more of these. Very intricate pieces. You seem like a very patient mech... are you interested?" 

Soundwave regarded the psychiatrist for a moment or two, then nodded slightly, setting the piece down. Alright... he'd help put the model together, sure. Hmm... really, he'd expected the psychiatrist to be much more demanding. However, Rung had just been bouncing prodding little questions off of him. That, and trying to get him to talk about completely unrelated things. If the psychiatrist wanted to try to earn Soundwave's trust, very well... no harm in letting him try. And, hey, maybe this mech actually was trustworthy. Soundwave didn't plan on going through actual therapy, but it might be nice to have someone to talk to. Rung seemed polite enough, from what Soundwave had seen of him, and he wasn't loud or annoying. 

Rung offered him a little smile, offering the spymaster a diagram, a small bottle of glue, and a box of parts. "You seem to have built-in tweezers, but let me know if you need a pair. How about we just work on this until our time today is up? I might attempt to start a conversation at some point, but you aren't obligated to respond... oh, do you need a chair?" 

Soundwave turned slightly to look at him, responding by typing the words out on his visor. "Negative. Soundwave: used to standing up for long periods of time. Does not require chair." he declared, his leg joints shifting to lock into place a bit. 

"Well, I'm rather older than you. I need a chair. Let me know if you'd like one... even if you don't need a chair, it's fine to ask for one, Soundwave. Nothing wrong with being comfortable." Rung shrugged, tugging a chair over to sit in it. Without speaking to the spymaster again, he began to work on one of the engines, deciding to just leave the spymaster to his bubble. If people were trying to be stubborn at you, ignoring them made it difficult for them to be stubborn. It was hard to brace yourself when nothing was coming at you. Plus, people tended to be more comfortable that way.

Soundwave watched the psychiatrist for a moment, noting the complete lack of anything confrontational, then relaxed just a bit and turned a few pieces over. 

Soundwave worked fairly quickly. By the time the session was over, he'd completed most of the highly intricate little engine. Carefully boxing it up, he put it back into the box, then looked down at Rung to see what might happen next. He'd calmed down a bit from his "I am expecting to be interrogated" tension, and he felt more inclined to be cooperative. He wasn't going to talk, but he was willing to be friendly-ish. 

"These incredibly intricate ones are like that partially for details, and partially just for those who like assembling them." Rung explained, carefully putting away a half-finished engine. "You work fast... I'm impressed. Now... I'm afraid I must go. Next session, why don't you come directly here? We can continue assembling this ship, if you like." 

Soundwave nodded slightly, acknowledging him, then gave a soft little humming noise as he crept out of the room. Rung hadn't grilled him, hadn't forced him to do anything, and in fact had let them do something quite nice... he felt inclined to be polite to this little mech, at least. 

 

The second session, things continued in much the same fashion. This time, Rung asked if Soundwave had ever seen one of these ships in real life. Soundwave responded in the affirmative, then showed him a few short video clips, things he'd filmed while watching the world. He tried to pick the videos with the least violence, too.   
Once done with that little conversation, Rung left him alone. 

 

The fifth time, Rung was mildly injured- crush damage to his chassis. When Soundwave lightly touched the damaged spot, the psychiatrist explained that a patient had suffered a flashback during a session, then happily added that they'd made progress that day.   
Soundwave found himself slightly impressed by the psychiatrist's lack of fear towards someone who could badly hurt him without even trying. 

 

The seventh time, the two had a short discussion about the recent almost-everyone-free-for-all grease-balloon fight in the hallways. Neither was particularly amused, but Rung explained that he was glad they had a fairly non-violent way to let off steam.

 

The tenth time, they finished the engines of the ship.   
Rung suggested they take a break from the model and play a game instead. Soundwave had never played the game in question, but Rung found that he picked up on strategy VERY fast. In fact, the spymaster kept winning. 

 

The twelth time, Rung asked if he could see Soundwave without the visor.   
"Not for long, you can put the visor back on... I know you're more comfortable that way. I'm just curious."   
After a moment of hesitation, Soundwave obliged.   
"You know, that's about what I thought your optics might look like... they do suit you quite well." Rung commented, calmly looking up at the spymaster. "Thank you."   
Soundwave smiled, just a bit, just enough to show his pointed denta. That was a good reaction, and... it was nice that Rung seemed to understand that this meant some amount of trust.   
"Those suit you too." the psychiatrist noted, then calmly began to set up the game board. "Now... which side would you like this time?"   
Huh. That felt like the right amount of attention... mild interest, but that was it. Soundwave put his visor back on, settling crosslegged on the floor opposite Rung. 

 

The fifteenth time, back to working on the ship, Soundwave finally responded to one of Rung's gentle attempts at conversation.  
They discussed music.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know why Soundwave is with the Autobots, I just had a bunny.   
> Tiny little Rung is so unthreatening, he doesn't get Soundwave's walls locked into place. Also, quietly acting trustworthy was exactly the right path to take. Soundwave would respond very poorly to any attempt at interrogating him or breaking his walls, but being calm and friendly will get you somewhere.


End file.
